Yeah. It's basically a justification that even if you're allied, you're still not a member of that organization, so of course they won't give you their best tech. A Fed aligned Romulan is still a member of New Romulus, and not a member of the Federation, after all.

That does, though, still leave Romulans hurting for ship variety at max level. But Cryptic has been giving hints about things they're planning to make to help alleviate that.

This week, we take part in two missions in a row where things are not quite what they seem.

As well, I got a new, really large HD recently so I decided to just record at full HD. Turned out that while FRAPS still outputs at a ridiculous size (upwards of 150 gigs!), the encoded copies are far more manageable (~6 gigs raw, ~2 gigs fully processed). So as a result, I decided to toss the videos on YouTube. Please enjoy the 1080p version of this episode, and actual 720p versions of all previous episodes on there!

This episode has our captains participate in some time travel. Again. And then we partake in "diplomacy". Again.

By the way, we're approaching the end of the Federation storyline soon. With that in mind, what would folks like to see our fearless captains do next? Shall we do the Klingon and Romulan storylines first (and if so, which one do you want to see next?), or do you want to see end-game content? Please let us know!

Umbaglo and Mechalomaniac, after saving the Federation from countless threats, turn to the Klingon Defense Force to get their fix of destruction and treachery.

The Klingon Defense Force (that's an amusing name for what their army does) has a different set of ship categories then the Federation, though since the Fed categories are ~roughly~ analogous to the typical MMO tropes of Tank, Support, and DPS. In general, KDF ships are more focused towards stealth and offense, and as a result tend to be more fragile.

The first KDF ship category is the Raider. Raiders, also known as the Bird-of-Prey, are the fastest and most mobile ships, as a whole, in Star Trek Online. They also, in almost all cases, have full Universal Bridge Officer slots, which means you can load out your abilities in any way you see fit. They can use Battle Cloak, which lets them activate the cloaking shield when in combat, though it doesn't turn on right away which leaves them vulnerable for a few seconds. In a later patch, they will also get a new ability called Flanking, which will give a bonus to damage as long as you're shooting your enemy from their rear.

In return for these, Raiders are also the most fragile ships in the game, with generally a -20% shield penalty and HP values that are universally under 25k. In addition, they cap out at 4 forward weapon slots and 2 rear weapon slots.

The next category is the Raptor. Raptors are basically equivalent to Escorts, though are generally more fragile (~-12% shields and HP values between 33k and 35k at max level) in exchange for inherent Cloak.

Next up, is the Battle Cruiser category. Battle Cruisers are similar to Federation Cruisers, but are more focused on damage. They are generally more mobile (typically equivalent to Science Vessel turn rates), and give +10 Weapon and Engine energy instead of +5 All, but have the Cruiser Command ability and tend to lean towards Engineering for bridge officers and consoles. The Federation got their first Battle Cruiser with the release of the Avenger, and the KDF recently got a version of that ship in response.

After that, we have the Carrier category. For a very long time (and in a way, it still is, actually), Carriers were a unique category for the KDF, though they only had 1 ship of that kind. Since then, many more carriers have been added, with the majority of these being faction agnostic lockbox prizes, though in terms of ones only available to a faction, the KDF still has the majority of them (there are only 3 Federation-only carriers, and only one of them is a full carrier).

Carriers are a hybrid of Cruisers and Science Vessels, statistically, in that they are very slow, but have massive amounts of HP and shields. KDF Carriers are split between two types, though, which determines what their inherent ability is. Pure Carriers have 2 hangar bays for summons, have the Subsystem Targeting ability, and give +5 Weapon and +10 Auxillary energy. Flight Deck Carriers, meanwhile, have 1 hangar bay, the Cruiser Command ability, are usually more maneuverable then pure Carriers, and give +5 all energy.

Next up is the Destroyer category. Destroyers are almost universally C-Store only ships from non-Klingon races, and are basically a Raptor that is slightly more resilient in exchange for not having any cloak at all. They're still more fragile then Escorts, even if they're only roughly as mobile, however, which means they're likely based around their unique consoles (given they're C-Store ships, after all), which tend to involve either large burst-damage weapons or abilities that hamper enemy ships.

Lastly, we have the Support Vessels category. Support Vessels are also almost universally C-Store only ships from non-Klingon races, and are basically equivalent to Federation Science Vessels, including having Subsystem Targeting and Sensor Analysis.

Mecha is planning to focus on Raiders for this series, while I plan on using Carriers. I don't know if we'll actually GET to the point where I'll use a Carrier, though, so we'll either just fast forward time to show them off, or I'll just use Battle Cruisers and shrug my shoulders.

After our attempt to deal a crushing blow to the Federation in their home turf failed for reasons no one could have ever foreseen, our captains go to rescue some captive Klingons before facing off against an ancient foe...!